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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

There is nothing unusual about this Cabinet Photo, I just like it. It's a formal studio portrait of a teen aged girl, standing with her hand on one of those fancy couches whose name I can never remember. She has quite long hair draped over her right shoulder. Her dress is not even quite ankle length, which, along with the way she's wearing her hair, was probably an indicator of youth and an unmarried status at the time (probably 1870s).

The photographer was McCabe, located at 429 Northampton Street, Easton, PA. I was not able to find out any specific information about the photographer, and there is nothing to indicate who the subject of the photo was. It's just a nice picture.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

This is an interesting photo of a person participating in a blanket toss, dated 1898. The photo shows a couple of buildings, a crowd of people, and a man in mid-air, holding on to his hat. A couple of people on the right side of the photo may be wearing military uniforms.

It is an albumen print with a cardboard mounting, and it is a bid faded. One thing that interests me is that it's 1898, and the photographer has managed to stop motion - the man in the air is obviously moving, and the shutter speed was apparently fast enough to capture it without any kind of blur.

The following information is written on back: "Some of the sporting camp life. Tossing in the blanket. Taken by Corporal Harmon. May 10, 1898." It was signed by H. B. Roderick. The corporal's name is hard to read - It could be Harman, or maybe even Herman.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

It's been awhile since I posted anything in this blog and I've been told by my better half it would be good if I did. I don't disagree, so I'll try to do better, starting now.

This is a late 19th century cabinet photo - maybe as early as the 1870s, maybe not - of 5 men standing and sitting under a portrait. One holds a long cylinder like object.

We have determined that the portrait is of Galileo, which made me think that the object one person is holding may be part of a telescope. However, someone else thinks it is a Narwhale (or narwhal) tusk, and it may very well be, because it really doesn't look like part of a telescope.

These people may be academics of some sort, they just have that look. There is no photographer information, and no writing to give us a clue as to who they were.

I rate this somewhere between unusual and really unusual for a cabinet photo. Most are very formal portraits, this one is not.